Alumna Anna Hanau, Associate Director of Food Programs at Hazon, Writes about Having "The Best of Both Worlds" at List College

"Something people tell us frequently at Hazon is a variation on "For the first time, I can combine all the things I'm passionate about! You really brought together all of my interests in one place. Now I really feel like I can be my full self." They say it with relief: our hyper-specialized world lets us live in micro-communities-these are my Jewish friends, these are my foodie friends-while a nagging feeling emerges that the sum of all these parts might still not quite add up to a unified whole, and opportunities to 'wear all of our different hats' are few and far between.

I smile when people tell me this, because it's one of the things that made me, too, so excited to find Hazon and the work that we do.

The notion that I could work in a field that combined all my passions was stoked by my experience in college. An eager Hebrew School assistant and Jewish Life Chair of my regional board in BBYO in High School, I was clearly pulled towards deepening my Jewish education and faith. I lived in a diverse (ie, not very Jewish) suburb of Vancouver, BC, where my other passions were jazz music and backpacking with Girl Guides. I knew that I wanted to go to college somewhere where there were more Jews, more of a Jewish community - but going to Israel felt too far away. It also seemed at the time "too Jewish." I wanted to explore the Jewish side of me, but not only that side. Happily, I discovered the Double Degree Program at the Jewish Theological Seminary and Barnard College/Columbia University on New York's Upper West Side. The program was advertised as offering the "best of both worlds:" first class Jewish education, with full access to the world of Liberal Arts at one of the country's best schools."